by Amy Weston/Wenn.com via NY Mag
To borrow a line from The Clash, “London’s burning”. And the photographs of the mayhem are stunning. The above shot here is by Amy Weston/WENN.com, as seen in NY Mag. (That image and a bunch more images from NY Mag here).
I’ve been been near riots of this magnitude on two occasions – Paris in 2005-6 and Seattle WTO riots – neither of which I photographed. I’ve also seen a guy get hit by a car and had my camera at the ready but did not shoot. And plenty of other things that I’ve not wanted to photograph. As a pure photographer, only-career-I’ve-ever-had guy, I’m not sure what’s in me that doesn’t pull me to want to shoot so many of these photos, even when I’ve had the chance (like this post). I’m deeply moved by such images -ala London riots, or trama, or the war in Afghanistan. Often times these images are so important to our culture, but at other times it’s shallow and cold to shoot them. I’m especially conflicted with the images coming out of London.
How about you… When do we shoot? When do we help or decide not to spread the horror?
UPDATE: Interview with the photographer (Amy Weston) that captured the stunning photograph in the earlier post below in an article over here at my Google+ page …offers some insights into what she was thinking and plays well with the ongoing discussion here on the blog and over at my Google+ page. (Add me to a circle if you’re G+ing so I can meet you too).
Great question Chase. When I was running my podcast F-Stop Beyond (on which you were a guest a couple of years ago), I had on your good buddy Vince Laforet. This was before the 5DM2 came out, so it was actually possible to get him on a phone. 🙂 Anyway, I had asked him about a photo he took during Katrina, as well as a question my daughter (about 13 at the time) asked about a newspaper photo she saw of dead bodies in the middle east. She wanted to know what the man who took the photo didn’t go over and help the people. Vince gave a pretty good answer. He shared that first, in many situations like that, there are already people on the scene better trained and suited to help. In the case of his Katrina photo, it was Nat’l Guard. Second, and more important, he pointed out that the photos he takes, as well as those by thousands of PJs all over the world, bring this information to the masses and it moves and mobilizes people. The haunting photos he took of Katrina that were seen by perhaps hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, may be much more good for the overall cause then him helping a few people here and there. I thought that was profoundly wise.
On Yahoo news there’s an interesting piece related to the destruction of the World Trade Center that does relate, in many ways, to this discussion:
http://news.yahoo.com/lenses-shield-9-11-photogs-capture-history-150824356.html
this is a really good question and really hard to answer in terms of ethics. I bet you have watched the documentary about James Nachtway a fearless Photographer in my eyes. He was described by some other video journalist who said that Nachtway would not shy away when it comes to get involved He said that when he is taking pictures of somebody that is about to get killed (machete scene in Indonesia) he would drop the camera step in and try to prevent the bad thats about to happen. If you end up in situations like that and something not right is happening I think you gotta have the guts to drop the camera and help instead of shooting or walking away … if thats the case and your not desperate about getting the cruelest image but document independently for the good I think its definetly a import part of journalism and society.
Greetings from Germany
I know what you mean… Before I became a photographer it always stuck me as cold hearted to see how could someone not stop to help and simply shoot. Now that I’m a photographer I guess sometimes you get lost in the moment. But to me the person involved is still more important than the photograph. And I will help if I can. If I cannot do it with my hands then my camera will come in.
Nevertheless I’m deeply moved by these said photographs… It’s a paradox I guess.
I recently saw the Ai Weiwei photo exhibit in New York featuring the 10 years he lived in New York’s lower east side. He had several photos documenting the riots that were occurring due to the struggles of the time. I feel that these sort of photos are important because they help to show where we have been and how far we have come as a society.